A few years ago I've developed a program that has a steady group of users. It became quite popular and now we have close to two million downloads on Download.com.

At first I provided the application as freeware to reach as many users as I could, but there is server costs and of course it would be nice to receive a bit of money in return for your effort.

I'm looking for a way to gain reasonable revenue from my freeware application, but still make a bit of money. Here's my experience so far (current in bold):

Xacti.com : Low revenue and it took me a lot of emails to eventually get my money.OpenCandy.com : Friendly, revenue is ok, good online overview of your downloads.InstallMonitizer.com : We're testing with them right now, revenue seems higher and a referral program.

Another option would be to switch to shareware (let's say 30-day trial based), but I think that would cost me a lot of users. The offer screens are harmless in my opinion.

What do you use for your software (opensource, freeware, shareware)?
What are your experiences so far?
What would you accept as a user?

Update 28/12/2011:
Number of installs is still increasing with InstallMonetizer: http://www.installmonetizer.com. The bundle automatically checks for the best match in geographic location and revenue.

For some applications we see $1.00 per US download! Many other countries are supported as well. It will take a bit more time to update all of our mirrors.

Many good questions generate some degree of opinion based on expert experience, but answers to this question will tend to be almost entirely based on opinions, rather than facts, references, or specific expertise.
If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

2

This is a question on business not programming. Try on startups.stackexchange. Voting to close
–
Tom SquiresDec 11 '11 at 1:12

17

The Programmers FAQ specifically mentions “business concerns” as being on-topic, and this specifically affects the behavior of the software.
–
Kevin ReidDec 11 '11 at 14:02

1

You are completely right! I've changed the title :)
–
ZyphraxDec 15 '11 at 4:04

1

Cardware ! Like in the good old times ;)
–
user2567Dec 15 '11 at 19:32

1

@Pierre303: cardware was fun. Still exists for some things though, and not only software.
–
haylemFeb 28 '12 at 12:42

Nice idea, but it seems difficult to do with our current product. We won't be able to create a light or extra-rich edition. However this might be a great idea for future apps.
–
ZyphraxDec 11 '11 at 14:47

that's sometimes referred to as "freemium", a contraction of "free" and "premium": free product is completely functional, but additional features that might add business value are part of a premium package. Bit like a VIP room. ;)
–
haylemFeb 28 '12 at 12:44

For some reason you don't see a lot of Desktop advertisement systems. A few months ago I've contacted Google to ask if it was allowed with Adsense, but it wasn't :(
–
ZyphraxDec 13 '11 at 23:01

That's unfortunate. What if you embed an internet browser?
–
FakeRainBrigandDec 13 '11 at 23:21

That's against the terms of use of Google :(
–
ZyphraxDec 14 '11 at 4:49

@Zyphrax - It is against the rules because your not allowed to have an "advertisement" page. Google makes it money by linking to every page on your website, and by us finding those pages, and clicking on ads on pages with real content on them.
–
RamhoundDec 14 '11 at 13:47

Beg

Ask upfront for donations. Throw in a sob story about server costs. If even a fraction of your user-base feels some amount of debt to you for providing software and a service to them for free, then you can reel in revenue fueled by their guilt.

It depends on the nature of your product though. If there's little interaction between you and the users, then any form of nagging or begging will put them off, which largely influences charitable nature. Also if your target demographic simply doesn't have disposable income, or isn't old enough for a credit card or paypal, you're SOL.

+1, But I have to object to the word BEG. Donationware is not begging. It's a valid business model where you ask your users to pay what they consider a fair and reasonable fee for using your software.
–
mattnzDec 27 '11 at 5:07

So, is begging not a valid business model? I see a number of people getting by on it. You know, for a variable quantity of "getting by".
–
PhilipDec 31 '11 at 4:24

Begging typically means asking for charity with nothing given in return. Donationware cannot and should not be considered begging. You are asking people to pay for what you have provided. Begging as a business model? thats a different discussion.
–
mattnzDec 31 '11 at 19:01

Advice °3:
You could change the users start page to your customized google start page with ads below.
Eg. Google.Mysite.com - this will be criticized by advanced PC users

Advice °4:
Add a donate page that lets users do additional stuff, eg. customize the window coloring or let them do something fancy. (and put the big donate button on every screen).
Or let people have auto-updates, if they have donated to the application.
No, donation => just a notification --> painless

Or if they have donated > 5 €, they have an in-app contact developer button for support.

A software that use your piece of advice #3 not only get uninstalled REAL QUICKLY, but also makes me criticize it as publicly and loudly as I can. Moveover, it can get rightfully caught by AV/spyware detector. So it's a no-no
–
Clement HerremanDec 13 '11 at 11:25

Many good advices. I've seen a few places where donations really worked out (... and seen cases where donations didn't bring much ...)
–
johannesDec 13 '11 at 11:29

Which situations are suitable for donations? Novice users or the die-hard computer nerds?
–
ZyphraxDec 13 '11 at 14:16

Perhaps a bit late and perhaps may not apply to your apps but one form of payment I once saw I found to be a nice balance.

A game on Android (Robotek by Hexage to not name it directly) uses a scheme where you get the full game for free. They would try to get revenue by either selling a High Definition of the game (same functionality but nicer image) but in this case they provided means to get shortcuts in the game play by purchasing bundles that translate as in-game currency. (Same effect could be reached in-game by spending a bit more time in training missions)

Many other game makes are doing this but what was different in their case is the approach. First they did not limit the game should you decide not to pay (subtle difference here though between limiting non paid and enhancing paid) and secondly they were quite open as to the reason for this was to support their effort. Of course having support for in-app payment makes this a lot easier.

I guess you could say the perks were intended as perks to thank you for your support.

One could say it is a "perkware". Located somewhere in between the begware and the shareware on the B-ware spectrum. (pardon the pun, could not resist !)

PS: I am not associates with Hexage in any way, just though their idea was nice and enough on topic to share here.

Make your application freeware. Allow customers to see what your full product is like and get a feel for it.

Stop free updates. Customers who currently have the product can keep it. But make all other updates come with a price.

Slowly limit functionality of the users who originally owned the freeware and didn't update. For example, if they still have an older version of your application, they can't get Tech Support. Think of a way to make them think "Wow, now I have to buy it!".

Boom! Easy money. Of course, this requires patience, but it will definitely be worth it.

There is a problem with free hosting, it sucks, thats the reason its free. There is nothing in life that is actually free. There is always a cost, even in the case of Linux, there is a cost.
–
RamhoundDec 14 '11 at 13:45

1

I have worked for a hosting company that did provide the same service for free as they did for paying customers for open source software/projects. Find a good company and you will be fine.
–
SardathrionDec 14 '11 at 15:38

I haven't used them personally, but mediatemple provide free hosting for projects, and they are quite reputable and have some very A-list clients.
–
Burhan KhalidDec 27 '11 at 19:02

If you don't plan to change product type from freeware (which I would suggest) then one thing you can do is find investors/advertisements to include in your product. You can show advertises in splash screen and on top/bottom strip of your application or somewhere else where it will not harm user experience. This way your product will remain in freeware and you can also earn money from advertisements. (But it is too hard to find/convey people to pat money and give us their advertisements.) - This is what we generally do.

You could also do the shareware model where you put up a message after 30 days telling them their trial is over and they need to do x to purchase. Give them the ability to dismiss the dialog and continue to use the product as they see fit (i.e. don't degrade the functionality).

It should be a light weight solution for you to implement. It's also not very annoying to customers. You might be surprised at the number of people that will pay you to use the product nag free. I think win-rar uses this model (or at least they used to).